Learn the rules to the trading card game Pokémon quickly and concisely - This video has no distractions, just the rules.
Advanced rules playlist: • Pokemon Advanced Rules
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0:00 - Objective
0:16 - Deck Requirements
0:34 - Types of Cards
0:55 - Starting a game
1:10 - Table Layout
1:50 - Picking starting Pokémon
2:38 - Starting the game
3:03 - Play Pokémon
3:09 - Evolve Pokémon
3:59 - Attach Energy
4:13 - Play Trainer Cards
4:47 - Pokémon Tools
5:04 - Retreating
5:45 - Abilities
6:12 - Attacking
8:26 - Checkup Phase
8:47 - Asleep
9:00 - Burned
9:12 - Confused
9:31 - Paralyzed
9:45 - Poisoned
9:57 - Special Conditions
10:20 - Advanced Rules
RULES:
The object of the game is to be the first player to either take all your Prize cards, knock out all your opponent’s pokemon, or to not run out of cards in your deck before your opponent. Each player provides their own deck of exactly 60 cards. When you are building a deck, you can only have 4 copies of a card with the exact same name, even if the image is different, except for basic Energy cards; and you must have at least one Basic Pokémon in it. There are 3 types of cards: Pokemon, which come in basic, stage 1, and stage 2; Energy, of which there is basic and special; and trainer, which contain itens, supporters, and statiums. Each player shuffles their deck. No one can look at or change the order of the cards in either player’s deck unless a card says so. Flip a coin and the winner decides who goes first.
Each player draws 7 cards from their deck to form their hand. Players may not look at their opponent’s hand unless a card says so. In the center of the table is the “In-play zone” which is shared by the players. On your half, you have your active spot, bench, deck, discard pile, and prize cards. Each player starts with, and must always have, one Active Pokémon. If your active pokemon is knocked out, move one pokemon from your bench to your active spot. You may only have one Active Pokémon at a time. If you run out of active pokemon, then you lose the game. Each player has their own discard pile located below their deck. Cards taken out of play go to the discard pile, unless a card specifically says otherwise. Typically, when a Pokémon is Knocked Out, that pokemon and all cards attached to it, go to their owner’s discard pile.
After drawing your hands, in turn order, each player places one basic pokemon from their hand face down in their active spot. If you don’t have any basic pokemon, show your hand to your opponent then return it to your deck, shuffle, then draw 7 new cards. This is called a mulligan. Repeat this process until you have a playable pokemon. Your opponent may draw 1 card for mulligan you took.
Each player may have up to 5 Pokémon on their Bench at any one time. Pokemon in the active spot and on the bench are considered “in-play”. Any Pokémon in play, other than the Active Pokémon, must be on the Bench. After each player has a basic pokemon in play, you may now, in turn order, play up to 5 additional basic pokemon face down to your bench, if you want.
After that, both players set aside the top 6 cards from their deck, face down to their prize area. When you Knock Out an opponent’s Pokémon, you take one of your Prize cards, at random without looking at them first, and put it into your hand. If you’re the first player to take their last Prize card, you win.
Both players now flip their active and benched pokemon face up and the game begins. On your turn you must first draw 1 card. If your deck is empty and you are unable to draw, then you lose the game. After you draw, you can perform any of the following actions any number of times, unless otherwise stated, in any order:
-Play a pokemon. Put a basic Pokémon from your hand face up onto your Bench.
-Evolve your Pokémon. If you have a pokemon card in your hand that says “Evolves from…” then the name of a pokemon you already had in play since the beginning of your turn, then you may play that card from your hand on top of that Pokémon. This is called “evolving”. You may evolve a Basic Pokémon to a Stage 1 or a Stage 1 to a Stage 2. You may not evolve a pokemon the same turn you put it in play or a pokemon you just evolved. When a Pokémon evolves, it keeps all cards attached to it and any...
Let's face it. Almost all of us collected the cards instead of playing the game. I used to be like that... Then I got two decks that I use for train and learn how to play myself. And I played against my cousin.
I’d play if I had someone to play..
I didn't know the rules so we just played it like an uno battler
I enjoy cutting pokemon cards, especially the rarest ones
@@rocketpadgamer you monster
Well the first thing I ever bought was a premade deck. The only problem is that I rarely had someone to play with, but I mainly tried to build decks.
The rules are not the same as regular chess, unless a specific card says so.
En Pokésant - pull out a chessboard and play a full game of chess with your opponent. the loser receives 30 damage.
@@PopitTart_ almost as annoying as Shaharazad 😂
Funnily enough, there are meme cards that oblige you to do some random things, like play rock, paper, scissors, sing a song or ask your opponent if you can do something. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if we get a card that obliges you and your opponent to play chess someday.
@@Elia2Tu magic the gathering had a card like that in its couple sets, i forget its name, but when it was played it required both players to set aside their hand, shuffle all other cards together, reset life totals to the starting 20 and play as if you just started a game. It was banned really quickly
@@fromryuk7785 the card that I mentioned about rock paper and scizors was not banned because it was just a little thing, but there was a card that was banned because it required you to sing a song every time you used it iirc
I’m not gonna lie, I still have no clue how to play this game.
I'll have to watch this a few times.
Same bro
I have a Pokémon card box but I have same problem as you.. well I have to watch this over and over until I finally know how to play..Ig oh well
Your right
😂
With this i can finally play with those 6 years old pokemon card collection
Grab your scissors, open them, put your pokemon card collection between them and close the scissors
@@rocketpadgamerwith enough cards at some point you would have to do that individually.
@@rocketpadgamer 💀
Sell them
Finally! Now more people will know how to play it! It's genuinely a super fun game and I wish more people played it.
No, why would someone wish an extremely toxic community to grow?
I used to have Pokemon Cards but no one to play with. I could read, but not well enough to understand the rules and my mom could never make sense of them herself. I just shuffled and looked at them. One day I sold all my cards to a boy who was looking for Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Back then, I had no conception about that this was a scam.
@@MrDirt Oh, you got screwed :( Were they all common cards?
@@MrDirt Channel picture checks out.
@@Otto500206 it's called profile picture
You madman, you did it. ...now do one for Yu-Gi-Oh! I expect a hour long video explaining PSCT, missing the timing, If/When differences, and proper extra deck summon.
How to play Yu-Gi-Oh TCG, "The rule is simple, don't!"
Digimon tcg too.
It's actually good. ikr? Now I know how to play Pokémon now!
magic the gatheric can potentially be absurd too.
And another hour of different between OCG and TCG.
you know its a complex game when its 5 times longer than most other videos
Multiple rules is not complexity
@@AB-J i mean, it kind of does depending on the amount
just wait til the yugioh video drops lmao
@@Gamebuilder2000 I disagree, I’ve played many games with so many rules and I have understood them well
@@thechuckster664 That game isn’t complex, It is a hard game to learn, But just because it’s difficult to take in doesn’t mean it’s complex
Finally! I can finally learn how to play this Pokémon card game! Now where did I last my cards half a decade ago..?
To play the game you need a pair of scissors and you must open them, put your deck in between and close the scissors, this is so much fun to do and I enjoy doing this on very rare cards
@@rocketpadgamer we found satan....
@@rocketpadgamer if you cut the rare cards that just means the value goes up for me so thank you
@@iidoughnutholes3087 > find valuable card > cut it in half > sell both halves > you have doubled your cash
A pretty good summary. While starter decks are easy to come by, I see a few comments that mention using their own collection. With that in mind, I think it'd be good to have a video about deck composition. How many energy cards should you have, the proportion of basic, stage 1, and stage 2 pokemon, etc. It's not a firm set of rules, but it would really help players move on from preassembled decks.
Buy a trainer's toolkit box. That'll give you a good idea. Some decks can run on as little as four energy, most run 12-16, and some run 20-25.
Don't they have to remain in the series?
18 energy cards should suffice for mono/one type deck
@@haroldsheedog1859 So, that's a total of 12 Pokémon (of different stages & not just basics), and a total of 30 Trainer cards?
"The rules are the same as 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel except for these changes..."
i remember playing pokemon cards with my classmates in elementary school, we lived in a poor country so no one had real cards, just those overpowered fake pokemon cards that were like 180HP - 340HP. The most popular kid had a card with 380 HP. the way we played it was the 2 players would pick a card each from their deck and put it face down on the table, count from 3 and then flip the cards over. The person who had the card with the most HP would get the other players card for himself.
that is a much better,understandable, and a more fun way
How is that more fun when it butchers the game to a flip of a coin LOL 😂
This video is awesome! Thank you so much. My husband, little brother, and I all started playing Pokémon cards and battling a couple weeks ago and some of these rules we did not know about!! We are loving the game!
I have literally hundreds of Pokémon cards (would not be surprised if I have over a thousand of them) but never learned the game So I’m looking forward to this video
legitimately had no clue how to play. very happy for the 10 min. video.
If you get a bunch of Silver Tempest cards, try the Swords of Justice deck archetype. Smeargle and Gloria just makes it insane.
thanks for finally showing the the pokemon TCG, i knew it existed, and it was always at the back of my head, thanks TSG
THIS was the video I was looking for, very well explained and cleared all my questions, thanks !!
I watched this and im already a pokemon expert. Thank you for making this tutorial!
You made me start playing MTG, now I want a Yu-Gi-Oh vídeo
Very well organized video, easier to understand than the videos on the official Pokemon channel
Bro i played by myself and still lost-
I remember as a kid I made the decision that I liked yugioh more than Pokémon because of the fact that it translated to real life a bit easier and was fairly simple. I couldn’t really get the same affect from Pokémon (at the time) although I did enjoy the game boy games. I’ve always wondered how they managed to turn it into a full blown TCG and tbh I’m not disappointed. I’ll need to see a few real time matches to get more grasp of combos and what not but it does seem fun.
as a guy who loves to play this, i must say this is well explained🙂
I am trying to learn how to play for my nephew. He is 6 and in love with Pokémon. 2 days ago we went to the toy store and his recent biggest dream was to have Pokémon cards. So I bought it for him. He is very happy now and want to play with me. But we both don't know how to play. So I made up simple game rules in my mind and played with him. I also purposely lose to him because he becomes very happy when he wins. Now, I learned from this video that I should also buy myself an another deck to play with him properly. I guess he is too small to learn all the rules right now so I will wait 2-3 years to play with him properly. Thanks for the video
This both confused me and helped me. Luckily, it helped me more, so thank you
He did it, the madlad actually did it. If this isn't enough to subscribe, I don't know what is.
As an amateur Yu-Gi-Oh player who grew up mostly invested in Pokemon (I also watched vgc tourneys and stuff), I want to merge my Pokemon interest and my newfound love for TCG (which I got from playing Yu-Gi-Oh) by expanding into Pokemon TCG. I just didn't know how it worked. Thanks.
thank you for making this video, i'm going to try to play with my friends. They got into it a few weeks ago and i had fomo, so i've started collecting since last week 😅
Nice i have been collecting pokemon cards since i was 6 im now 12
Is Leon’s charzard different to a regular charzard in the TCG or are they the same thing with the name rule
THIS is what i call a proper tutorial, finally..
There were a lot of important rules I didn't know about the game that where left out, causing a lot of confusion. So much so that I had to look up multiple sources of the game's rules in order to full understand the game
I used to play back when sun and moon was the most recent region, but they’ve added some stuff to the game I think. Anyways, I’m gonna have to teach some kids how to play with the new cards they get from Christmas. (Their mom asked me to help lol) Wish me luck! 😅
This guy, I like this guy. He is THE GOAT of how to plays.
If you want to learn how to play something this guy probably has a tutorial
This is super useful. I just got lots of pokemon packs. I'll be happy I'll be able to use my cards
Trying to get into this with my kid. So many rules😂 ordered a scarlet violet elite trainer box. Hopefully that has everything I need to get started.😂😊
Thanks for the vid helps me who is starting to play
I watched TCC Prof's pokemon tutorial yesterday and thought "that rules are the same guy should do this" and not 24 hours later, I am offically dubbing myself psychic
One qualm I have - for confusion I believe, it’s damage and can be prevented with cards like protect cube, I think?
This helped me soooo much! That i liked and subbed! You are awesome!
My variation (that is not to be used in official competitions or the like): One person is to bring 120 randomly selected cards so that each player gets 60 cards total. You can have as many copies of any card as you want. When the active Pokémon is knocked down, they don't go to the discard pile yet. On your next turn, you flip a coin. If heads, you have succeeded one death save. If tails, you have failed one death save. Any damage against a knocked down Pokémon increases the failed death saves by one, including checkup effects. Any healing on a knocked down Pokémon increases the successful death saves by one. When at three successes, the Pokémon gets up to fight again at full HP but they take double damage (in addition to weakness and resistance), and then if they go down again, they are discarded. If they fail three death saves, they are discarded anyways. You may evolve a Pokémon you just put into play or one you just evolved. Not only may evolved Pokémon use their predecessor's moves, but the stats stack, so health or resistance can stack up. This means weakness also stacks up (additively). You may attach any number of energy to as many Pokémon as you want. Pokémon can have as many tools as one wishes. Attacking costs energy. Weakness also needs to check for the type of energy required for an attack, but it does not stack with the Pokémon type or any other instances of the type. If an evolved Pokémon reaches 0 HP, it reverts to one stage lower. When your opponent's Pokémon has failed 3 death saves or has been knocked out a second time, you take a Prize Card at random. If attacking while Confused, you flip a coin. Heads, it works. Tails, half the damage first, then apply resistance and weakness according to the rules above to your Pokémon. Any knockdown from a failed Confused attack will instantly get the Confused Pokémon discarded.
I just noticed, are You playing with the Battle Academy set? That's the same set i used to learn the Game, it's pretty fun and cheap in comparison to getting any box set since there is 3 full decks for 20 dollars
THANK YOU, IT IS NOW CLEAR HOW TO PLAY POKEMON.
nice video; been thinking about getting back into this game.
Bro ty very much im trying to learn and im taking notes like its quartine and im listening to my teacher
I enjoyed this video. Couldn't find the advanced rules playlist yet. I think it may not be made yet?
I been waiting for this video for so long
Basic rules: 10 mins long. Oh no what have I gotten myself into
Oh yes, We have the difference of regular pokemon and V, Vstar, and Vmax. The lost zone Radiant pokemon Cards that exist simply to negate other cards V union Don't get me started on how abilities interact to form new effects.
the way you bend those cards is literally killing me inside
2 things I noticed that was missed out 1) You don't have to put a pokemon in your bench at the start of the game but it isn't ideal 2) If you try attack while confused and it's tails, I think you take 10, 20, or 30 damage
1) correct, that is why I said "may". 2) according to page 16 of the official rulebook: "If tails, the attack doesn’t happen, and you put 3 damage counters on your Confused Pokémon."
@@TripleSGames Touche
The amount of confusion damage counters has changed over the years.
Don't correct others if you **think** you know the right answer
I just got back into playing the online version of this.
Really graat explanation, thank you
Now we need the rest of the TCG Trilogy (MTG, YU-GI-OH and POKEMON)
Ty I have so many Pokémon cards but I never knew how to actually play it
So how do we get cards in our hand ?from deck? Or do just have some in the beginning and if so then how many can we have in our hand and where do we place our energy in our deck or in our hand FYI I have never played but I just wanna know for the future PLS ANSWER THIS
Finally the rules. Now my greninja gx will come to some use
I can't wait for him to explain Yu-Gi-Oh
thank you i learn to play the the game you are the best
I was wondering where you buy damage indicators etc for this game. I cant seem to find them on Amazon and have just been using cutout pieces of paper for a while but I want to buy some new ones.
structure decks have them
try a local game shop or eBay
When attacking, do you have to remove the energy cards used for the attack?
no
No, unless it's written on the card. Then you will need more energy cards and/or a strategy to draw more energy cards.
There's a ton of instances where you can say "unless it's stated otherwise" or "unless you don't" and it would be correct.
Great video, thank you. Where can I buy those damage counter markers?
local game shop or eBay
thanks! @@TripleSGames
The Elite Trainer Box includes everything that you need. Dice, damage markers, burn marker, poison marker, sleeves and energy cards.
Thanks so much I really need this info
So, I still have Gen 1 Trainer cards. How are they treated in the new rules?
You know, I devised some rules for a Rotation Battle format. In the Rotation Battle format, your starting hand must have at least three Basic Pokémon. You have three Active Pokémon and three Benched Pokémon. All cards that expand the size of the bench are forbidden. If your hand contains less than three Basic Pokémon at the beginning of your turn, you take a Rotation Mulligan, which does not reduce the number of cards in your hand like a regular Mulligan does. You have a marker below your three Active Pokémon called the Rotation Marker. Only the Pokémon with the Rotation Marker beneath it can attack or recieve damage or be affected by a Trainer card unless another card says so. Each turn has two Rotation phases: the Initial Rotation Phase, which happens after you play Trainer cards or attach an Energy, and the Defensive Rotation Phase, which takes place once your opponent declares an attack. To rotate your Active Pokémon, move the Rotation Marker below the Pokémon you wish to be rotated to the front. During a Rotation Phase, you may not move the Rotation Marker in such a way that it's beneath the same Pokémon at the end of that Rotation Phase as it was at the beginning of the Rotation Phase (no 360° rotations)
There was a Hex edition, as I remember. Pokemon Master Trainer, or something.
bakugan?
@@kemcolian2001 Wrong series, man
I just did some calculations and learned that due to the rules of your opponent running out of cards being a victory for you can auto win if you mulligan your hand exactly 46 times
Dang... This video makes me wanna play the pokemon TCG again. I don't wanna have to get back into the meta again though. You aren't there for like, 2 months and the whole game changes.
So true, it kinda stresses me out lol
1) What cards need to be in those 60 cards which we choose? Can it be all v or Vmax or Ex cards?
Ik it's an older video, but I have to say this: 6:24 "Only your active pokemon can attack" Alakazam ex (151 set): I'm going to pretend I didn't see that
I can finally play this game! Then I realised that I am in india,where it is a mission impossible to get real cards,and you can forget about championships
“Only your active Pokémon may attack” 2023 Alakazam: This is where you’re wrong kiddo.
could you make a video about the digimon tcg rules ?
so like i get what the rules are, and this is more a question for people who play this game regularly, but what does strategy typically look like in this game? What are you typically building decks to do?
The main way to win the game is by getting all of your 6 prize cards (sure, you can always win by other ways, but typically you'd want to win by that rule, since it's the easier way) so you should build an entire deck revolving around doing damage to your opponent's Pokémon. That being said, the main struggles you'll have while playing this game are the energy attachment and the draw power. You can only attach 1 energy per turn and can only draw 1 card per turn, in a deck of 60 cards, so you'll always want to have trainer cards (usually they are the dominant type of card in a deck, going up to 30+ cards in a single deck) or Pokémon cards that can help you bypass those limitations. Examples of cards that could help you bypass those limitations are: Professor's Research (let's you discard your entire hand and draw 7 new cards, which can get you rid of useful cards, but sometimes can give you better ones), Ultra Ball (let's you discard 2 cards from your hand to search your deck for any Pokémon card that you want up to 1, same case as Professor's Research) or Malamar (it's ability let's you pick one basic energy card from your discard pile and attach it to one of your benched Pokémon). The examples are infinite, but hope you can have some notion of it by this comment.
@@Elia2Tu Yes, this helps, thank you. I didn't really know what kind of combos players were trying to hit in this game but that all makes sense.
I only play against my little brother, but I noticed some things that made me win and he lose almost all the time: 1. He has more pokemons than anything else in his deck (that's not ideal, cuz you usually only use up to 6 of them before losing the game, except counting their evolutions, and no matter what powerful card he pulled he was almost always with his hands tied cuz he couldn't find energy to attack). 2. Many different type pokemons is bad because you keep waiting for some specific energy but you couldn't put many so the chances of drawing it are way too small. Now, this is a mistake we both make but I found it relatively easy to counter with when you have many trainers/pokemons that call for you to choose energy cards from the deck (and I knew for a fact that he doesn't even have many of those). Also, I use the pokemons with most powerful attacks not needing specific type of energy, that way you have something to do no matter what you draw. 3. Also a stupid mistake he used to make (but maybe that's my opinion, someone might know how to use it well): putting more evolved pokemon than basic ones on your deck. As I said before, you gotta be able to play with whatever you draw, but sometimes I won just because he only found one or two basic types and some evolution that he couldn't place yet. The quickest games we've played. Also, not to forget that *6 of your cards stay unplayable until you defeat your opponent*, so depending on your shuffle abilities you might get too many important pokemons stuck, your other pokemons can't be just "fillers". I guess that's what I remember. I only bought a deck because he once appeared crying to me that I never spend time with him (we have a big age-gap but I was never that cruel to leave him to the side, really) so I just wanted to show him I cared. I never was interested in finding other kids to play so maybe it's all just commonsense but I don't know any real strategies.
@@rebecabggs top tier sister
can you also do videos for Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering and Digimon pretty please
This is way better than my rules
Thank you
My understanding of the mulligan penalty rule is that if a player performed more mulligans than the other player, then that other player gets to draw cards equal to how many more mulligans their opponent took than them. For example, if Player 1 needed to take 1 mulligan and player 2 needed to take 2, then player 1 would draw exactly 1 additional card at the end of setup, while player 2 wouldn't get to draw any even though their opponent took a mulligan. Additionally, my understanding of Energy Cards is that you can play as many of them on your turn as you want, however you can only play one of them on the SAME POKEMON on any given turn unless an effect says otherwise. Just wanted to confirm that I understand these two rules.
The mulligan part is correct, you can attach only one energy per turn, not one to each Pokémon, hope I helped 😁
Do you have to attack if able? If I have the energy to attack but attacking will defeat the opponents active Pokeman. Allowing the opponent to make a stronger Pokémon as active Pokémon and that Pokémon will defeat me. Can I choose not to attack or do I have to ?
Thank you so much
if u have a rare candy u can skip the turn of a basic pokemon into a stage 2
For those who are confused. Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones: If you want to be a good archeologist you have to get out of the library! You need to physically start playing the game. The more you actually play. The more you will understand!
You never saw this coming _I SUMMON POT OF GREED!!!_
Very helpful
the video we all need
WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR TY
Item cards classified as "tool cards" are now their own classification, thus giving us 4 kinds of trainer cards: supporter, stadium, item, and tool 🙂.
at least someone from the championships explain this to us
somebody really went out one day and thought let's turn this kid's franchise into a super complex TCG
Can u attack after u placed an energy card or tool card
I used to use dimes as damage counters and the winner pocketed the money when they knocked out a pokemon. Also, I only ever battled one person ever. Everyone else played Magic and Yugioh
4:43 Wait wasn't this changed a while back? I haven't played in forever but heard that you're now allowed to play supporters on T1
What's ur pokemon card series name?
The mad lad did it!
Where do you het those like hit points or the poison thing
Thank you bro
Can turn one goes 2nd player evolve their pokemon? Attack or play supporter?
I neeed that playlist! 😖
XYZ summon?
Do you need all stages/evolutions of one basic card to play?
You actual madman you did it
thanks this help me a lot.